Bourdieu and social capital
Bárbara
I'm a new member of this list.
First, a brief introduction: I'm a a PhD candidate in Sociology at the
Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal and Netlab, University of
Toronto. My PhD research is about Internet and social capital in
Lisbon, Portugal.
I'm trying to respond to some criticisms on the literature, namely
that Bourdieu views social capital as an exclusive property of the
elites (Field, 2008), which I don't agree.
He did explore social capital in an inequality setting, as social
capital was a powerful asset, highly used by the privileged to
reproduce and maintain social positions. So, he did focus on the
privileged. However, I couldn't find a single passage where he
actually stated that lower classes didn't or couldn't have social
capital.
When in "La Distinction" he talks about primary differences of class,
he says that these derive from the overall volume of capital:
economical, cultural, and social capital. But when he talks about the
different distribution among classes, Bourdieu does not mention social
capital, he says that “The distribution of the different classes (and
class fractions) thus runs from those who are best provided with both
economic and cultural capital to those who are most deprived in both
respects (Bourdieu, 1984:114). The secondary differences are defined
by different asset structures, meaning the “different distributions of
their total capital among the different kinds of capital” (Bourdieu,
1984:114).
I found that he mentions lower class and social capital in one of the
footnotes of "The forms of capital":
"National liberation movements or nationalist ideologies cannot be
accounted for solely by reference to strictly economic profits, i.e.,
anticipation of the profits which may be derived from redistribution
of a proportion of wealth to the advantage of the nationals
(nationalization) and the recovery of highly paid jobs (see Breton
1964). To these specifically economic anticipated profits, which would
only explain the nationalism of the privileged classes, must be added
the very real and very immediate profits derived from membership
(social capital) which are proportionately greater for those who are
lower down the social hierarchy (‘poor whites’) or, more precisely,
more threatened by economic and social decline" (Bourdieu: 1986:57).
In this footnote, Bourdieu was actually acknowledging that social
capital was even greater for the non-privileged, never stating that
the "poor whites" couldn't have social capital.
Well, maybe someone has a different view or can give me some pointers,
I really appreciate your help,
Thanks a million,
Bárbara Barbosa Neves
gilbert.quelennec
Sur la notion de Capital (social, économique, culturel, etc.) voir
les textes en ligne de Bourdieu http://
pierrebourdieuunhommage.blogspot.com/2010/10/articles-en-ligne-de-
pierre-bourdieu.html
pour mieux comprendre La Distinction (qui aurait pu avoir comme sous
titre le capital culturel) et donc l'espace social et les classes
sociales voir les publications en ligne de Bourdieu http://
pierrebourdieuunhommage.blogspot.com/2010/11/videos-articles-pierre-
bourdieu-propos.html
Bien à vous
Gilbert Quélennec
http://pierrebourdieuunhommage.blogspot.com/
Le 9 nov. 10 à 15:34, Bárbara a écrit :
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Bárbara
J'ai lu "Le capital social. Notes provisoires", "The forms of
capital" et "La Distinction", mais je vais vérifier ces références.
Best,
Bárbara Barbosa Neves
www.bbneves.com
On Nov 9, 4:02 pm, "gilbert.quelennec" <gilbert.quelen...@wanadoo.fr>
wrote:
> Sur la notion de Capital (social, économique, culturel, etc.) voir
> les textes en ligne de Bourdieu http://
> pierrebourdieuunhommage.blogspot.com/2010/10/articles-en-ligne-de-
> pierre-bourdieu.html
> pour mieux comprendre La Distinction (qui aurait pu avoir comme sous
> titre le capital culturel) et donc l'espace social et les classes
> sociales voir les publications en ligne de Bourdieu http://
> pierrebourdieuunhommage.blogspot.com/2010/11/videos-articles-pierre-
> bourdieu-propos.html
> Bien à vous
Allan Sutherland
>
> He did explore social capital in an inequality setting, as social
> capital was a powerful asset, highly used by the privileged to
> reproduce and maintain social positions. So, he did focus on the
> privileged. However, I couldn't find a single passage where he
> actually stated that lower classes didn't or couldn't have social
> capital.
A key question is, is there anywhere where he states that the lower classes,
do you mean the working class?, did have social capital?
Regardless of whether he did or not, the qualities and capacities of that
social capital are by theoretical statement low. For Bourdieu classes are
defined by their relative and composite possession of economic, cultural and
social capital in that descending order of relative importance. The elite,
upper classes are rich in all or most of these; he does seek to
differentiate between an upper class, dominant, who are richer in economic
capital than in cultural capital, and a dominated upper class who are richer
in cultural than economic capital. Social capital is the networks of
connections of these elites, which in terms of quality is higher because of
their elite positions.
So, if the poor were to have access to social capital it would be either, a)
in the form of the networks among themselves, whereby their ability of their
social capital to improve their social situation is limited by their access
to resources, and lack of economic and cultural capital, or b) of the nature
of what Granovetter calls the weak links, as bridging social capital, where
its quality would be improved. However, with the latter, weak links, can not
be extensive, or social capital would not differentiate the rich from the
poor so readily as it does. Also, the social distance between the rich and
the poor would then be reduced if their social capital was shared this way.
A problem, as I see it, with social capital lies in cultural capital and
habitus. If cultural capital, embodied in habitus, determines class through
the enabling and reinforcing of social recognition of being 'like us', a
member of a class, then cultural capital is what makes social capital as it
provides the basis for social networks. If social networks in some ways
provides memberships of classes, then it short circuits and presents
theoretical problems for cultural capital. (It is also important to recall
that Bourdieu states economic and cultural capitals are the primary class
determinants, and he thus says less about social capital than these other
two forms.)
Does this make sense to you? I hope so,
Good luck with your project.
Toodle-pip,
Allan.
Bárbara
Perfect sense! Your text raises extremely relevant points, and it
really helped me to organize my thoughts.
Thanks a million,
Best,
Bárbara Barbosa Neves
On Nov 10, 12:38 am, Allan Sutherland <al...@kyushu-ns.ac.jp> wrote: